The past two weeks have seen remarkable traffic for mid-summer. Interest in the news was driven by our coverage of:

• False claims that Obama was not born in Hawaii, and the “birther” movement of conspiracy theorists who are further eroding the credibility of conservatives in America. TWI’s reporter, David Weigel, appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” to talk about the birther phenomenon. His reporting was also picked up by TheDrudge Report, The Washington Monthly, Fox News Channel’s Red Eye, and Politico.
   
• In Iowa we reported on attempts by conservative activists, including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, to derail health care reform by tying it to expanded abortion services.

• At The Michigan Messenger, Ed Brayton navigated the web of Washington intrigue that ensnared Democratic U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak the past few weeks, looking into his connections to the mysterious “C Street” house on Capitol Hill that is home to the secretive Christian fellowship The Family.

• The Minnesota Independent’s team, meanwhile, is watchdogging the 2010 candidacy of GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann. Andy Birkey’s post examining recent statements on health care reform by the right-winger and her Republican colleague Rep. John Kline-comments that they oppose the so-called “public option” because it’s cheaper than current alternatives-generated nearly 35,000 hits from Talking Points Memo, The Drudge Reprort, and The Huffington Post.

• The New Mexico Independent’s investigation of the disastrous crash of the secretary of state’s computer system has exposed the state’s inner workings as a classic catch-22. As the state’s IT chief told our reporters, the system has “an authority gap”: he is powerless to fix the problem because unlike other state agencies, New Mexico’s constitutional offices, such as the secretary of state, “can call their own shots.” Heath Haussamen and Trip Jennings are following up with state lawmakers who tell them they would use the only power they have-the power of the purse-to demand compliance.

• In Colorado, we are pleased to report that we have settled with Colorado State University in the suit we brought with two newspapers to gain access to audio recordings of controversial closed-door meetings held by the search committee for the university’s chancellor. The door is now open to the media.

As always, I thank you for your support and welcome your questions and comments.

Best regards,

David S. Bennahum

 

 

July 2009 surpassed September 2008 in garnering the second-highest amount of traffic in a month for The Washington Independent, thanks in no small part to David Weigel’s extensive reporting on the quiet mainstreaming of the birther movement in the Republican Party.

Weigel was the first to notice a YouTube video of a woman yelling at Rep. Mike Castle, a moderate Republican from Delaware, at a campaign event, demanding to know why he wasn’t concerned about President Obama’s birth certificate. Shortly after Weigel blogged about it, the video went viral and was picked up by The Drudge Report, Politico, “NBC Nightly News,” MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “The Daily Show,” and many other outlets. On Tuesday, July 21, Weigel appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” to talk about the birther phenomenon.

Weigel also answered a question posed by The Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard about the birthers: “If this were a valid issue, wouldn’t Hillary Clinton or John McCain have raised this during the presidential campaign last year?” Weigel spoke with McCain campaign lawyers and reported that the campaign did, in fact, look into the rumors surrounding Obama’s birth certificate and quickly dismissed them as baseless. Weigel’s story immediately received widespread attention and was linked by The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, The Washington Monthly, The Political Wire, The Daily Show’s Indecision Forever blog, the conservative Hot Air blog, and many others. As of Friday afternoon, Weigel’s story has received more than 80,000 page views and is still going strong. Weigel appeared Friday on Air America’s “Inside Story with Ana Marie Cox” and Fox News Channel’s “Red Eye” program.

In the past two weeks, national security reporter Spencer Ackerman unveiled two widely differing views of the U.S troop presence in Iraq as held by two important figures on the issue. Attending an invitation-only press event with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Ackerman asked al-Maliki about the future of an accord on American forces in Iraq, known as the Status of Forces Agreement. Maliki indicated, for the first time publicly, that he was open to rethinking that agreement, which calls for a full U.S. troop withdrawal by 2011, and he signaled potential support for an American troop presence beyond that deadline. Maliki’s comments broke sharply with White House rhetoric on the Iraq War. But, as Ackerman explained in his piece, it fits with what some prominent counterinsurgency thinkers in the administration say will be necessary for a successful drawdown.

The following week, Ackerman was the first to publish a surprisingly blunt memo from a senior military official questioning the U.S. rationale for remaining in Iraq. In the memo, Army Col. Timothy Reese argued that the United States has accomplished all it can hope to and should withdraw from Iraq immediately, well ahead of the December 2011 deadline established by the Status of Forces Agreement. Ackerman also was the first to identify Reese’s personal blog, where the memo was previously published, but the memo had been removed. The story of the respected, high-ranking military official challenging the continued presence of American forces in Iraq received widespread attention throughout the media and blogosphere. The New York Times put up a piece about it, but did not publish the memo as Ackerman’s piece was going to press. Ackerman’s reporting was picked up in blog posts by The Atlantic’s James Fallows and Andrew Sullivan, as well as Wired’s national security blog, Danger Room. That night his story was also cited by Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC program.

Meanwhile, TWI’s Mary Kane continued dogging an important foreclosure story, saving homeowners from signing away their legal rights before participating in President Obama’s anti-foreclosure program. In January, Kane uncovered how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were forcing mortgage holders to sign legal waivers before having their loans modified. When Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., learned of the waivers as a result of Kane’s reporting, he promised to make sure that practice came to an end. Thanks to Frank’s efforts, Obama’s anti-foreclosure centerpiece, the Making Home Affordable program, specifically ensured that such requirements would be banned. But Kane learned this week that some servicers who are participating in the program were still requiring borrowers to waive their legal rights. Housing attorneys tipped off Kane to how some of the biggest players participating in the taxpayer-funded plan-including Ocwen Financial Corp., Bank of America, and Aurora Loan Services-were still using the waivers. As a result of Kane’s questioning, Ocwen looked into the accusations and found that they were in fact still using old paperwork in some instances. Ocwen confirmed that the paperwork would be revoked, consumers affected would be notified, and the waivers would not be enforced. Kaneis continuing to monitor this story as it unfolds.

 

The Colorado Independent and two newspapers settled a joint lawsuit with Colorado State University over access to audio recordings at the center of a controversy over closed-door meetings held by the search committee for the university’s chancellor. Those meetings resulted in its vice chairman, Joe Blake, being chosen as chancellor. Colorado Independent’s John Tomasic, who has been following this story for weeks, reported that tapes of a May 5 meeting the university agreed to release show that the search committee rushed to name Blake chancellor as state lawmakers were considering transparency legislation. “We may need to move quicker because this bill could pass in some form this afternoon, tomorrow morning, as we speak,” the board chairman said on the tape.

In another step toward greater government transparency, Colorado Senate leaders are getting closer to having their chamber wired for live broadcasting. There had been some confusion about whether the project would move forward at all. Senate Majority Leader Brandon Schaffer told John Tomasic that the plan is still in the works to bring greater transparency to the Legislature’s upper chamber. But there are still details to work out at the next meeting of the Executive Committee, where leaders of the House and Senate will meet to try to iron out how the Senate is coordinating its broadcasting efforts with the House.

As part of his continuing examination of the politics of oil and natural gas on the Western Slope, TCI’s David O. Williams also profiled growing concerns over drilling in Battlement Mesa, where a Denver-based energy company wants to drill 200 natural gas wells in the growing, unincorporated community in Garfield County. Anti-drilling activists are citing a 2006 Colorado Court of Appeals ruling that says that state authority doesn’t trump county-level regulations protecting water quality, wildlife, and other environmental matters on federal lands within county borders.

Williams was on hand when Gov. Bill Ritter shot back at Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C., after his testimony on green energy job development before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Sen. Jim Inhofe,R-Okla., questioned why Ritter was testifying at all when the Centennial State sits atop some of the nation’s biggest oil shale reserves. Because Inhofe didn’t give Ritter a chance to respond, the governor told reporters that until there’s a way to protect scarce water resources and the environment, now is not the time to create an oil shale free-for-all.

On other energy issues, a plan to build a biomass-fueled heat-and-power facility in Vail that would make use of thousands of acres of beetle-ravaged trees has received a thumbs up from the Denver Water Board, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, and the U.S. Forest Service. The project, which would send wood chips through a gasification process that would produce heat and power with lower carbon emissions, was first reported by The Colorado Independent in February.

 

With more Republicans entering the race for the party’s 2010 gubernatorial nomination, a feisty GOP primary is assured. But, as Jason Hancock reported, not everyone thinks that will damage Republican chances to effectively battle Democratic Gov. Chet Culver next year. A lively primary season could rile up the party faithful and strengthen the eventual nominee before the general election, sources said.

The major themes and talking points now under debate on the national stage are playing out in Iowa as Lynda Waddington found at a recent conservative health-care forum in Cedar Rapids. One Republican ophthalmologist, who has run unsuccessfully for Congress, stressed that she is leery of any government role in providing health care, saying that the current health-care marketplace is competitive as it is. Reform, she said, would lead to health-care rationing and a decline in service.

In an analysis of the role of abortion in the current debate, Waddington noted that conservative activists are trying to paint efforts to fix health care as a way to mandate the expansion of abortion services. Activists claim reform would force the closure of Catholic hospitals and deter pro-life individuals from entering the medical profession or working at crisis-pregnancy centers. On an anti-abortion activist webcast, James Dobson of Focus on the Family said the reform debate is “the abortion industry’s dream come true.”

She also continued her examination of rural health care by looking at a growing national trend that has largely gone unnoticed: dairy farmer suicides. As milk prices continue to plummet and these farmers find themselves in a financial abyss, some rural states are seeing an increase in the number of dairy producers taking their own lives because they’re in a financial abyss from which they can’t escape. But Iowa, Waddington noted, has a rural mental-health hotline, which has helped demonstrably in addressing the crisis, compared to states without such a service.

 

The web of Washington snared U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, whose connections to the mysterious “C Street” house on Capitol Hill that is home to the secretive Christian fellowship The Family. The house and its residents, including Stupak and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), first become the focus of much attention nationally after the public admissions of adultery by Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina. The Messenger’s Ed Brayton questioned the Upper Peninsula Democrat about his involvement with The Family. Stupak denied any knowledge of the nature of the mysterious rowhouse and any involvement with The Family, but admitted he rents a room there. “The bottom line here is that Stupak is either being dishonest or confessing dangerous ignorance,” Jeff Sharlet, author of a book-length investigation of The Family, told Brayton. Brayton’s well-placed questions drove more than 10,500 readers to the site. On Friday, July 24, Rachel Maddow picked up Brayton’s line of questioning and had Sharlet on her show to repeat much of what he told the Messenger.

A week later Brayton had Stupak in his sights (CK) again. A congressional lawmakers were embroiled in the intense debate over health care reform, Brayton examined the record of the Michigan Democrat who, as the co-chairman of the Pro-Life Caucus, wrote a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying that “[p]lans to mandate coverage for abortions, either directly or indirectly [are] unacceptable.” As Brayton reported, Stupak’s shifting positions on abortion and the health-care debate sent mixed messages about where he stood as a compromise was being hammered out.

Eartha Jane Melzer reported that Dow Chemical, under pressure from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has agreed to pay the state of Michigan $10,000 to post fish consumption advisory signs along rivers it has polluted with dioxin. The Midland-based company had previously balked at paying that cost despite agreements to inform local residents of the dangers that lurk in the river. In related news, the EPA also announced that 17,370 tons of dioxin-contaminated soil has been removed from a Saginaw County park.

And, in the final day of its session, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled ruled on a major case about Dow’s dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed, but sent the matter back to circuit court for clarification. As Melzer reported, tthe stakes were high for both Dow and a coalition of landowners downriver from Dow’s Midland plant who are seeking to have the court certify their case as a class action.

On another growing environmental issue, Melzer and Todd A. Heywood also teamed up to look into plans by the state’s department of transportation to experiment with a chemical cocktail that inhibits the growth of grass. Retarding grass growth could save money on mowing along highways and on state lands, including nearby residential areas, which is causing concern. Melzer and Heywood discovered that in the state of Washington officials have said one of the chemicals is “highly mobile” and could get into groundwater.

As first reported by Todd Heywood, Lansing Mayor Virgil Bernero this week formally asked Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to launch an independent investigation into the conduct of Lansing’s city attorney, who disclosed the HIV-positive status of a man arrested in a controversial undercover sex sting on May 22. Such a disclosure violates state medical privacy laws. Heywood also reported that the arrested man tried to file a criminal complaint in the matter, but no local police agency or the Michigan State Police would take up the case.

 

Paul Schmelzer drove the site’s top traffic in late June with the news that the National Republican Congressional Committee added Rep. Michele Bachmann to its list of most vulnerable incumbents for 2010. Bachmann joins Rep. Erik Paulsen. Schmelzer explained that Bachmann was added by NRCC’s Patriot Program, which requires incumbents to meet certain fundraising and infrastructure benchmarks to get financial help from the NRCC. The Michigan Messenger’s report was picked up by The Huffington Post and myriad social networks, driving nearly 40,000 readers to the story.

At the same time, in Andy Birkey’s analysis of anti-abortion campaign donations Michele Bachmann is one of the country’s top earners-and she’s delivered for her contributors on their issue. Birkey reported that Bachmann is ranked third of 435 U.S. House members in total campaign contributions from anti-abortion interests, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. At the same time, local anti-abortion forces are already tarring Rep. Tarryl Clark, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party candidate just a day after her announcement.

Birkey’s post examining recent statements by Bachmann and GOP Rep. John Kline regarding health care reform garnered nearly 35,000 hits from The Huffington Post, The Drudge Report, and Talking Points Memo. Birkey reported that both representatives said they oppose the so-called “public option” because it’s cheaper than current alternatives. Bachmann said on the House floor last week that a taxpayer-subsidized plan will be 30 percent to 40 percent cheaper than commercial insurance, Birkey reported, while Kline recently told a radio interviewer that he feared people would flock to public insurance “because it is cheaper[and] it’s designed to save money. The government-run program has some very clear advantages.”

Chris Steller’s coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was picked up by The Huffington Post, Fox News and Daily Kos, driving more than 100,000 readers to the The Minnesota Independent. Steller reported that Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken took the current court to task for its rulings on abortion, voting rights, price fixing, age discrimination and corporate entanglement in elections. Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, meanwhile, said she bristled at “mostly anonymous question[ing of] Judge Sotomayor’s judicial temperament” and cited her own experience in Minnesota: “Where I come from, asking tough questions and showing very little patience for unprepared lawyers is the very definition of a judge.”

 

In late June, as a result of Trip Jennings’s and Heath Haussamen’s investigations into the knocked-out computer system of the office of the secretary of state (SoS), state lawmakers at two hearings asked SoS staffers to explain their bungling of a database project that was a key element of ethics reform.

The Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) ultimately deemed the office incapable of managing the public database and recommended that it and other SoS projects no longer be handled in-house. Lawmakers went on to conclude that officials had no disaster plan in place for public data and could not even communicate effectively with each other.

But, Trip Jennings went on to reveal, the state’s own IT chief said he’s powerless to fix that problem, or the flawed practices of the secretary of state. Unlike other state agencies, New Mexico’s constitutional offices, such as the secretary of state, “can call their own shots” when it comes to IT policies, the tech chief said. And this remains true, even though legislators said last month that the secretary of state was not capable of carrying out crucial ethics-reform projects such as a new public-disclosures database. In response to the IT chief’s “authority gap,” lawmakers told Jennings they would use their power over the state’s purse strings to demand compliance. “The only power that we can exert over these offices is the power of the budget,” one legislator said.

Marjorie Childress reviewed the latest campaign disclosures to reveal that, of Albuquerque’s three mayoral candidates, the incumbent, Marty Chavez, spent the least amount of public campaign funds. Chidlress also wrote that it is unclear how Chavez accounted for the value of materials he had been using prior to the inauguration of a new financing system. One standout item was $22,000 polling call conducted last December. When Childress raised the issue with Albuquerque’s city clerk, he said, “You’ve properly identified an issue that should be looked at.”

In another nimble bit of fact-checking, Heath Haussamen noted that Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez claimed in a news release this week that “on her watch” as Doña Ana County district attorney, the county clerk “was successfully prosecuted for voter fraud.” But a look at the facts revealed a more complicated story. The clerk was actually removed from office for infractions of the state elections code, such as not filing voter registrations in a timely manner, failing to notify voters of precinct changes, and failing to destroy unused absentee ballots. Martinez and her co-prosecutor made no mention of “fraud” when prosecuting the case, Haussamen reported.

 

 

Department Of Good News

Flint mayoral candidate: Medical marijuana can bring green jobs

Udall, Denver Water, Forest Service back Vail biomass plant to DOE

–The plan would turn bark beetle-infested trees into clean thermal energy